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On my first 2 series this year and was worried that with a lighter car and RWD I'd be screwed when it snowed. Totally, absolutely wrong. The car is fantastic in snow.

Two tricks I've used that have helped.

Get a dedicated set (i.e. don't use your summer rims with winter tires)

Run the smallest wheel you can get, which I think is 17-inch for the 235 if you have the M brake option and 16 if you don't. Check with BMW. I don't have M brakes so I run a 16. The car looks kind of stupid on 16's with almost doughnut looking wheels but having curbed a rim in the past hitting a pump bumper at a gas station, the extra width of the tire is great (I run a 60 profile).

Recommended tires
There can be a lot of blue-in-the-face debates on this and it can change from year to year, but the most common debates tend to be between the Michelin X-Ice 3 (good for snow, awesome on slush and ice patches, good tread life) or the Bridgestone Blizzaks WS70 (awesome on snow, good on slush and ice, shorter tread life than Michelin).

I have the X-ice 3s and have been extremely happy with them. I wouldn't go off-roading in them but I've never been stuck on any snowy city street, or going up (or down) the worst hills. Get a bit of slippage up a steep hill? Traction control off and away you go. Driving along at a good speed and slam on the brakes? The car is going to slide. They're not spikes. They're tires. You always have to drive to the conditions.

Go Winters for sure. For best ice/slush, Michelin x-ice 3. For lots of snow, Bridgestone blizzaks. There is a Finnish made tyre for all winter weather, Happ...something... something. Legendary performance but pretty pricey.

Another tip, get the smallest wheel you can put on the 235. You want as much weight as possible on the contact patch.

I purchased my new BMW M235i 2016 in Sept had it for about 2 months, and I need some help on a few things. Since this is my first BMW and first RWD car (manual).

Should I purchase winter tires or all season? and do I need to buy new rims? or can I just use steel ones?

Let me know if you can help me out on this!

Thanks so much!

Did you get the grey manual by Parkview or black manual 235i by Ajax? I was looking at the same thing but given the small price gap on a new one + I get the color/build I wanted, I ended up getting new. They didn't really budge on their advertised price, I think the most I got off was $500 for the used vehicles.

I'm waiting on my 2019 M240i, and I upgraded to the AS Jet black alloy rims and it came with bmw iprotect, which covers the tires and rims for a year. Its all season so I'm gonna use it for the winter, hopefully its ok. I had a supra before and drove it during the winter with Pirelli AS so it should be ok.

I'm waiting on my 2019 M240i, and I upgraded to the AS Jet black alloy rims and it came with bmw iprotect, which covers the tires and rims for a year. Its all season so I'm gonna use it for the winter, hopefully its ok. I had a supra before and drove it during the winter with Pirelli AS so it should be ok.

The best all-seasons on the market cannot touch even crappy winter tires in bad conditions. Why would you compromise your safety and performance by hobbling your shiny new bimmer with all-seasons in a canadian winter?

As everybody else has (repeatedly) said... get winters, a little narrower than stock, with smaller rims. That way you aren't abusing your stock alloys with repeated mount/unmount operations and repeated rebalancing, with the (small) chance of damage each time, and not exposing them to the salt, slush, and inevitable curbing that happens when curbs are stealthed in a blanket of white, that goes along with urban winter driving. Plus you can change them yourself in your driveway if you get caught out by an early snowstorm. Furthermore you will save wear on your more-expensive lower profile summer tires this way.

The only remaining valid argument against a second set of rims in my mind is that it's more expensive to buy extra rims. Look at it this way... each changeover costs you ~$100, which buys a steel rim and probably a hubcap. You do two a year. So in 2 years you have broken even. Snows will last way more than two seasons, and your summers will last longer too this way. So, it's a cost savings actually. If you buy a used set of winters tires on rims, which are readily available, you can save even more.

Just because you drove a car before in winter with AS and it was "ok" doesn't mean you didn't leave a lot of performance, safety, and confidence on the table by doing that.